Europe

The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union, consisting of 28 member states that are subject to the obligations and the privileges of the membership. Every member state is part of the founding treaties of the union and is subjected to binding laws within the common legislative and judicial institutions. In order for the EU to adopt policies that concern defense and foreign affairs, all member states must agree unanimously.

The European Union was founded on November 1, 1993 in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Before 1993, the EU was not as big as it is today. European countries started to cooperate economically since 1951, when only states such as Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Germany, The Netherlands and Italy participated. Gradually, more countries decided to join. The last to join is Croatia – in 2013.

Since then, the EU has developed into a huge single market with the euro as its common currency. What began as a purely economic union has evolved into an organization spanning all policy areas, from development aid to environment

The EU covers over 4 million km² and has 495 million inhabitants — the world’s third largest population after China and India. By surface area, France is the biggest EU country and Malta the smallest.